The Doctor's Longed-For Family. Joanna Neil

writing an article about what goes on in A and E. You know the sort of thing…the challenges you come up against in your daily work, the kind of cases you see on a regular basis. Perhaps you could help him out? I can’t think of a better person to show him around.’

      Abby glanced at Matt and forced a smile. ‘I don’t know about giving you the grand tour. It will be more a case of following me around as I work and getting questions in where you can, I should imagine. I don’t have the luxury of free time, but you’re welcome to tag along.’

      The head of administration looked a trifle disconcerted at that, but Matt responded well enough.

      ‘That would be excellent, thank you. I really don’t want to put you out in any way.’

      Didn’t he? So why did she get the feeling she was being coerced into doing this? Anyway, she wasn’t going to spend too much time worrying about it, whatever either of them thought about her manner to them.

      The trouble with men in authority, from her experience, was that they expected to have everything work their way, and it didn’t matter who they trod on to get to where they wanted to be.

      Wasn’t that what Craig had done? Her ex-boyfriend had begged her to help him study for his exams, had picked her brains, and then he had walked all over her to get the promotion she had been after. He had taken their shared research paper, the one she had worked on intensively and had been struggling to perfect for over a year, and he had taken all the credit for it himself, using what had mostly been her work to wow the interview board with his so-called expertise.

      ‘I was on my way to see a patient,’ she murmured. ‘If you’ll excuse me?’

      ‘Of course.’ The man from Admin clapped Matt on the back and said brightly, ‘I’ll leave you in Abby’s capable hands.’ Then he strolled back the way he had come, taking a leisurely route and pausing to admire the colourful murals along the way.

      ‘I don’t know how much help I can be to you,’ Abby said to Matt, continuing on her way to the trauma room. ‘I would have thought you already have some experience of A and E. We all do a stint there during training, don’t we?’

      ‘That’s true and, to be honest, I actually specialised in it at one time. What I’m really looking for is your take on things. How you feel about your work, and which cases have an effect on you above all others.’ He paused for a moment or two, giving her a thoughtful look. ‘I noticed that you seemed sad when we walked in here a few minutes ago. Was it because of a difficult problem you had to solve?’

      ‘I don’t deal with cases or problems,’ she told him. ‘I treat sick children.’

      She might have expected him to draw back at the snub, but he simply studied her more closely, a glimmer of compassion in his eyes. ‘And that’s the crux of it, isn’t it? That’s what makes yours such a heart-rending job.’

      She winced at his perception. Why did he have to show that he understood? She didn’t like the man, neither did she want to have anything to do with him. He was the enemy, a thorn in her side.

      ‘If you can understand that,’ she said, ‘then it beggars belief that you should write an article on the pros and cons of vaccination. I have to deal with the fallout from that when parents read your stuff and decide that vaccination isn’t for their children. Then I have to try to save the lives of the ones who come in here with meningitis and respiratory infections that overwhelm their immune systems.’

      ‘Did you read the article?’

      ‘Bits of it.’ She grimaced. ‘Someone had left the magazine open on the table in the doctors’ lounge, and I glanced at it in passing.’

      He gave a crooked smile. ‘I’m not going to win this argument when I’m up against a biased opinion like yours, am I? Perhaps you should have read the article in full before you made up your mind that I’m the devil incarnate.’

      ‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ she said. ‘I tend not to think about you at all.’

      That remark might have been a good payback for the putdown he had made on his website, but it didn’t have anything near the effect she’d wished for. He simply tilted back his head and laughed.